In contrast, text messages are totally private, he argues. Kids don't let parents snoop around their phones, and two-thirds of married adults do not share their phones with their spouses.
The ebb of e-mail is also confirmed by a diminishing trend in page views, a tabulation of frequency in service used by e-mail users. Hitwise, a research company which monitors page views, noted last month for the first time that visits in the UK to social networks overtook visits to Web-based e-mail services.
Booming business
Business use of e-mail, however, remains unaffected. In fact, the bad news for those already facing groaning inboxes is that business-related e-mail volume is forecast to grow to 28MB per day per typical corporate e-mail account by 2011. At the moment such accounts typically receive about 18MB of data daily, according to market researchers Radicati.
"There still are many areas where e-mail will prevail for a long time, even in South Korea - to send attachments in business, for example," says Ahonen. "But for simple person-to-person communications, the traffic and messaging is shifting clearly away from e-mail to SMS, instant messaging and social networking services such as blogs and digital communities.
"In terms of communication speed and privacy," he said, "SMS text messaging totally trumps e-mail. It's past its peak."
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